The End of an Era

A whole lot has been written and said about the way Ron Washington left the Texas Rangers organization, but I wanted to take a minute to look at what the Ron Washington era looked like for this franchise. The Texas Rangers franchise was a franchise that had never even won a post season series, adn had only won one post season game in franchise history when Wash was hired. They had been the definition of mediocrity for most of the franchise’s history. I enjoyed Rangers baseball before Wash was the manager, and I will continue to enjoy it now that he is gone, but I will miss him.

Wash brought a certain attitude to the game, an attitude that you don’t see a lot in profession sports. He liked to have fun. He would run with his players from the dugout, he would coach third base from the dugout, he would go out to the mound instead of Mike Maddux when a young pitcher named Derek Holland would struggle and give him the kick in the pants that he needed. Wash was known as a player manager, because the players so obviously liked to play for him, and it showed on the field.

Now that the Ron Washington era is over, we can look back and say that the Rangers have not only won a post season series, but they went to back to back World Series, had 4 straight 90 plus win seasons, were considered among the elite in baseball for a stretch of 4 to 5 years, Ron is the winning-est manager in Texas Rangers history and we have tons of great memories from his time here in Arlington.

It is a real shame the way that his tenure in Texas came to an end, and I will miss his smile and his enthusiasm. He was great for the Rangers and the Rangers were good for Ron Washington as well. The next manager will be picked soon enough, and we will all move on, but I will never forget the Ron Washington era and what it meant to me as a fan and to the community as a whole. Lets remember Ron Washington for the good things he did and not for the way it all ended. I think we owe him that much.

On a side note, this is my last post for Nolan Writin. I have been the co-editor with David Cash and circumstances have led me to the decision that I no longer have the time or energy to continue to write as often as I have. I will forever be grateful for the great staff that worked for me, for David for working with me for the last year, and for the higher ups at Fansided for giving the opportunity to write for them. I leave with great memories. I still own and operate the Ranger Report, but I will be writing very sparingly. I appreciate all the support you guys have given Nolan Writin and I hope that you continue to support them and read what theses great people write, as I will! Thanks again for all the support and for reading all the crazy stuff that I have written over the last year and a half. I really do appreciate it and Let’s Go Rangers!